Hiroshi Shimizu

娘十八嘘つき時代

Eternal Heart

Toshie, a young, conservative secretary-typist has fallen in love with Shozo Narita, a young man she has met through her work.

Walk Cheerfully

Raucous small-time thief Kenji falls in love with sweet and simple Yazue, but when she finds out what kind of guy he really is, she leaves him until he proves to be honest. Kenji soon finds it's not so easy to get rid of one's past.

Victory Song

An anthology of thirteen patriotic stories about Japanese citizens contributing to the war effort.

Forget Love for Now

Yuki is a young, single mother supporting herself and her son, Haru, with a job as a bar hostess.

Nobuko

A spirited young teacher challenges the conservative school employing her with liberal thinking and teaching methods.

Family Diary

Two childhood friends go their own ways but meet again some years later after they have both married. They get re-acquainted, meet each others’ families, and all is well. Then the disagreements start...

The Masseurs and a Woman

A pair of blind masseurs, an enigmatic city woman, a lonely man and his ill-behaved nephew—The Masseurs and a Woman is made up of crisscrossing miniature studies of love and family at a remote resort in the mountains. With delicate and surprising humor, Hiroshi Shimizu paints a timeless portrait of loneliness and the human need to connect.

娘十八嘘つき時代

Eternal Heart

Toshie, a young, conservative secretary-typist has fallen in love with Shozo Narita, a young man she has met through her work.

Walk Cheerfully

Raucous small-time thief Kenji falls in love with sweet and simple Yazue, but when she finds out what kind of guy he really is, she leaves him until he proves to be honest. Kenji soon finds it's not so easy to get rid of one's past.

Victory Song

An anthology of thirteen patriotic stories about Japanese citizens contributing to the war effort.

Forget Love for Now

Yuki is a young, single mother supporting herself and her son, Haru, with a job as a bar hostess.

Nobuko

A spirited young teacher challenges the conservative school employing her with liberal thinking and teaching methods.

Family Diary

Two childhood friends go their own ways but meet again some years later after they have both married. They get re-acquainted, meet each others’ families, and all is well. Then the disagreements start...

The Masseurs and a Woman

A pair of blind masseurs, an enigmatic city woman, a lonely man and his ill-behaved nephew—The Masseurs and a Woman is made up of crisscrossing miniature studies of love and family at a remote resort in the mountains. With delicate and surprising humor, Hiroshi Shimizu paints a timeless portrait of loneliness and the human need to connect.

Notes of an Itinerant Performer

Uta’s mother died when she was six years old; her father she never met. She was forced to adopt a traveller’s life when her grandmother died, and now she is a dancer and part of a family of actors who travel from town to town, setting up street performances. A way of escape from this marginal existence arises when she gets the chance to move to tea merchant Hiramatsu’s place, where she is asked to teach his daughter to dance.

Dancing Girl

In Asakusa, Tokyo, a couple of a violinist Yamano and a revue dancer Hanae lives in poverty. One day Hanae’s little sister rolls into their apartment and begins to stir things up with her riotousness.

Record of a Woman Doctor

A group of female doctors travel to a remote village during their summer holiday to offer free medical care to villagers. There they must battle prejudice and superstition as much as disease.

The Sentimental Idiot

Performing every night for an audience of male admirers, cabaret singer Yuri captures the attention of Yoshio Tsugawa, a motorcycle salesman who becomes hopelessly enchanted by the unattainable star. In his desperation to win her favor, Yoshio deceives his own customers to support Yuri’s glamorous lifestyle, ultimately ending up imprisoned for embezzlement.

The Golden Demon

A penniless orphan loses the woman he loves, when her family arranges a marriage to a wealthy playboy. He believes she was blinded by greed, and becomes a miser.

Mr. Thank You

In Depression-era Japan, a courteous bus driver carries an eclectic group of passengers from the mountainous Izu to Tokyo.

Acorns & Chestnuts

A city boy moves to the countryside and the kids there pick on him.

Japanese Girls at the Harbor

Set in the port city of Yokohama, two girls, Sunako and Dora who attend a Christian school, pledge to be friends. But when a youth named Henry appears on his motorcycle and offers to take Sunako for a ride, we know that this friendship won't last and that the lives of both girls will change in ways they are barely able to comprehend, and can do little to change.

Shining Love

Created by Shochiku’s cultural film department on behalf of the Ministry of Education, this film tells an ironic anecdote juxtaposing the fate of a cooper’s son with that of the son of a middle-class salaried worker, and championing the virtues of honest poverty and diligence. An educational film preaching a fable-like message, it is however filled with humorous scenes that offset the film’s didacticism. Original director Yoshio Nishio fell ill and was replaced halfway through the shooting by the admired filmmaker Hiroshi Shimizu; though finished in May 1931, the film was shelved and never given a general release. Shot as a silent film, this version of the film features musical accompaniment, sound effects, and a spoken commentary track by a benshi narrator, thus bearing witness to the variety of forms taken by sound film during this transitional period.

Image of a Mother

The young boy Michio struggles with the loss of his mother while his widowed father, Sadao remarries the kind-hearted Sonoko, who has a daughter of her own. As Michio clings to memories of his mother, the family navigates the challenges of grief, love, and new beginnings.

Ornamental Hairpin

A Japanese mountain inn patron's foot is cut by an ornamental hairpin accidentally left behind by a former patron, leading to much curiosity among the other patrons regarding her identity.

Mr. Shosuke Ohara

Saheita, the final heir of a once rich and respectable family, can't refuse the many villagers that come to him for favours and money, even though he is on the brink of bankruptcy. Around town he is better known by his nickname Mr. Shosuke Ohara.

My Darling of the Mountains

In the mountain hot springs of Izu, Japan, a love triangle is waiting to happen. It is the late 1930s when the paths of a stunning woman fleeing Tokyo, a handsome bachelor and a blind masseur cross.

Nara ni wa furuki hotoke tachi

Short documentary film on the architecture and history of Nara Kofuku-ji and Todai-ji temples.

Eclipse

The story is centered around the devastating experiences of two villagers, Osaki Shuichi, and his cousin, Nishimiura Kinue, when they leave their hometown for the metropolis of Tokyo. They are in love with each other, but Kinue is expected to marry the lawyer Kanda Seiji. In consequence, Shukichi leaves for Tokyo, where he becomes tutor to the son of the rich Iwaki family. The heartbroken Kinue also makes her way to the capital, where she becomes a bar hostess.

A Star Athlete

During college military training exercises, the bond between two friends and athletic rivals is tested when one of them becomes involved with a woman who may be a prostitute.